The story goes that when the state bird was selected in 1931, it was because it's elaborate courtship display, in which the male flies up into the air and then sings as he gently floats back to the ground, was reminiscent of the "glory that was, and everlasting joy that is, living in Colorado."

While the lark bunting, which is actually a type of sparrow, (not a lark, or a bunting, or a "prairie finch", as John Kirk Townsend called them) is surely delighted at the prospect of returning to our beautiful state each spring, its cheerful melody and aerial acrobatics hearken back to a time before fence posts on the wide, flat, expanses of of Colorado's Eastern Plains. With little in the way of perches to get them up above the prairie grasses, this singing and dancing was the only way for these ground dwelling birds to show off for prospective mates and define their breeding territory.

It is that time of year, when the lark buntings have come "home" to the state which holds them in such high esteem. Their stay will be brief, seemingly only long enough to fledge their chicks before they return to points south. But perhaps it is the ephemerality of the visit that makes their return so exuberant, for both bird and us alike.